Principal Engineer II

About the Role ICON is seeking a Principal Engineer II to join our Linux team and provide senior technical leadership in designing, implementing, and supporting enterprise-grade Linux platforms. This role is critical to maintaining the reliability, scalability, and security of infrastructure that underpins business-critical services. The successful candidate will bring deep expertise in Linux systems, IBM Spectrum Scale (GPFS), Red Hat OpenShift/Kubernetes, OpenShift AI and VMware, and will drive innovation, operational excellence, and platform modernization. This is an Office Hybrid role with 60% office attendance (3 days a week) at our HQ in Leopardstown, Dublin 18. May require participation in an on-call rotation and occasional off-hours work for maintenance or incident response. What You'll Do

• Serve as the technical lead for business-critical projects, owning architecture, design decisions, and successful delivery.
• Design, implement, and maintain highly available, scalable Linux environments across on-premises and virtualized platforms.
• Administer and optimize IBM Spectrum Scale (GPFS) for high-performance, distributed storage and data management.
• Deploy, manage, and enhance container platforms using OpenShift/Kubernetes, and OpenShift AI, ensuring secure and efficient application delivery.
• Manage and optimize virtualized infrastructure leveraging VMware technologies.
• Ensure system stability, performance, availability, and data integrity across all Linux-based infrastructure.
• Develop and implement security hardening standards, ensuring compliance with organizational and industry best practices.
• Lead troubleshooting and root cause analysis for complex system and performance issues in distributed environments.
• Drive automation initiatives using scripting and infrastructure-as-code to improve efficiency and reduce operational risk.
• Collaborate with application, DevOps, security, and infrastructure teams to align platform capabilities with business needs.
• Establish and enforce engineering standards, best practices, and documentation.
• Mentor and provide technical guidance to engineers, fostering skill development and knowledge sharing. What We're Looking For
• Extensive experience in Linux system engineering and administration (e.g., RHEL, CentOS, or equivalent).
• Proven expertise with IBM Spectrum Scale (GPFS), including design, deployment, and performance tuning.
• Proven experience with OpenShift, Kubernetes and OpenShift AI, including cluster management and container orchestration.
• Experience in using VMware environments.
• Deep understanding of system performance tuning, monitoring, and capacity planning.
• Experience implementing security hardening, patching strategies, and compliance frameworks.
• Strong scripting and automation skills (e.g., Bash, Python, Ansible, Terraform).
• Solid networking knowledge (TCP/IP, DNS, load balancing, firewalls).
• Strong understanding of disaster recovery and contingency planning.
• Experience with high-availability architectures.
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and Platform Engineering practices.
• Knowledge of enterprise monitoring and logging tools (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, ELK stack and SolarWinds).
• Relevant certifications (e.g., RHCE, RHCA, OpenShift, or equivalent).
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex technical projects and influence architectural decisions.
• Strong written and verbal presentation and communication skills, with the ability to engage both technical and non-technical stakeholders. Nice to Have
• Optional/preferred qualifications (only if mentioned) Compensation & Benefits Salary: Competitive salary with additional benefits as part of ICON’s inclusive culture. ICON offers a range of benefits including:
• Various annual leave entitlements
• Health insurance offerings
• Competitive retirement planning offerings
• Global Employee Assistance Programme, LifeWorks (24-hour access to a global network of professionals)
• Life assurance
• Flexible country-specific optional benefits (childcare vouchers, bike purchase schemes, discounted gym memberships, subsidized travel passes, health assessments, among others). Visit our careers site to read more about the benefits ICON offers.

ICON is committed to inclusion and belonging, providing an inclusive and accessible environment for all candidates. All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or nationality.